At this point, I will take literally ANYTHING to throw up the gameplay of Hourglass. It's getting so stale. Maybe a new objective based mode, some kind of balance changes, or even just tweaks to existing features in the mode. Could be great to host a fight night as well during these features. Here's a few common things I see people bring up that could be addressed:
Perma Runners
People who sail away from conflict either constantly or at any given chance they can get, avoiding the core purpose of the gamemode. This both frustrates players having issues with locking down these runners, and allows said runner to go unpunished for the intentional delay, since there's no mechanic in place to prevent it.
I think both and shrinking circle and a timer would be a poor way to handle the match. Some mechanic needs to be in place specifically for the people who permarun. I suggest if no cannonballs are landed within 1-2 minutes in the match, the ship furthest away from the center begins taking less constant Red Sea damage until they re-engage the other boat, or vice versa.
Cheaters
Arguably there are WAY more cheaters in Hourglass than there are Adventure. It's easier for them to grief the experience of other players. While I know cheaters are banned and have personally had no issues with support banning cheaters after I provide sufficient evidence, it doesn't prevent them from ruining the session.
Now that cross-stamp matchmaking has been introduced, players have no way to avoid encountering these cheaters like beforehand after the first encounter. I think a simple fix to this is just to make the cross-stamp matchmaking a feature you can toggle. This also enables the more competitive players to set up matches between each other.
Supplies
I think I spend more time moving supplies from barrels and fishing out flags and crates than I do fighting in matches. I think if you win a match against an enemy boat, all supplies in their barrels transfer to yours.
In addition, storage crates also get a "Won in Battle" tag. Until you dive or until another opponent invades you, these crates are 5X faster at storage and retrieving supplies.
Finally, when you vote up the Hourglass, the ship crew can vote to automatically purchase supplies. This locks captaincy and merchant crates (excluding storage crate), instead giving them X4 pines each, x6 mangoes each, x15 bananas & coconuts, x30 cannonballs each, X3 of each Throwable (excluding Bonecallers), and 30 planks each. This is just a nice lil Kickstarter
